Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Horror Previews

Aside from the recently released The Collector and upcoming A Perfect Getaway, as summer enters its second half and fall moves steadily closer, more and more horror movies are being advertised. Despite the recent trend of remakes, a hefty group of original horrors are appearing on the menu.

First up is Diablo Cody's follow-up to Juno, a comedic horror called Jennifer's Body. The star is Megan Fox, whose vapidity and attention rather annoys me, but after watching the trailer I am certainly willing to see it. Especially since the costar/protagonist is Amanda Seyfried, whom I will always cherish as Lilly Kane from Veronica Mars. Fox is a hot, popular girl at high school (duh) who has been possessed by a demon after a rock 'n roll group uses her in a ritual sacrifice gone bad (twist). As a result she craves human flesh apparently, and begins easily picking off the boys at high school who worship her. It's up to her plain Jane friend Needy (really?) to stop her. Release date: September 18th.

Cameron Diaz and the hunky James Marsden star in The Box, based on a Richard Matheson short story "Button, Button", (which in turn was made into a Twilight Zone episode,) in which a married couple, short on money, are given a mysterious gift, the titular box, within which there is a button. A severely scarred Frank Langella explains the choice; push the button and get a million bucks, the catch being that someone, somewhere in the world, whom they don't know, will die as a result. Release date: October 30th.

Pandorum is a space-set horror movie, about two crew members who wake up alone and with no memory, and then find they're not alone. I'm eager to know more plot lines, and a bit scared by the tension and darkness of the film, as well as being familiar with the stellar acting abilities of Ben Foster. Release date: September 18th.

Unfortunately just a direct-to-DVD release is all that's been given to the long awaited Trick 'r Treat, a series of horror vignettes set on Halloween night, starring the likes of Anna Paquin (in a red riding hood pastiche) and Brian Cox, with a little TahmohPenikett thrown in. By all accounts this movie is fantastic, and I have been eagerly awaiting it for well over a year. (It was made in '07.) Release date: October 27th.

Although not yet filmed and not set to come out for another year, a picture has been posted as a promo for the movie Priest. It stars Paul Bettany as, well, a priest, who has turned away from the Church to kill and pursue vampires that have stolen his niece. Sounds pretty frakkin' awesome. Release date: August 2010.

As far as TV horror goes, Dexter's newest season premieres soon, in which he juggles the joy of serial killing with the responsibility of fatherhood. I mostly watch this show because his sister (now wife in real life...weird) is the best character on the show, plus they seem to love having big name guest stars who are themselves serial killers. (This year it's John Lithgow.)

Aside from these, the sequel to Rob Zombie's Halloween remake is upcoming (check out a good interview with him here at bloody-disgusting.com), a mostly-female slasher called Sorority Row is on its way (or possibly came and went, I'm not paying attention), a remake of Nightmare on Elm Street starring Jackie Earle Haley is in the works, a genocidal virus movie Carriers, and the certainly not to be forgotten Zombieland (release date, October 9th):

The final word is reserved for The Descent 2, the sequel to the chilling and terrific all-female spelunking horror movie from the writer/director of the also solid Dog Soldiers, Neil Marshall. This movie has been pushed back on several occasions, and I have no idea when it will finally come out, but when it does, I'll be there.